Another Dilemma, and a Writerly Question

Because I like it, and because I have to scratch my own back on this project a little (because nobody else is going to do it for me) I’m posting another favorite passage of the day. I read this and it just made me smile knowing that this sprung fully-formed from my own personal thought-box. But the passage comes with its own problem. Rather, it’s a problem related to the passage by dint of the fact that the passage made me realize the problem.

God, my thoughts on this thing are a trainwreck. The problem, or rather, the dilemma, is this:

I think the book is full of scenes that are good. At least, the book is full of scenes which are potentially good. And I like my main characters. I love them, in fact. They’re ridiculous and earnest and silly and flawed and, ultimately, I hope, believable and maybe a little compelling. My leads, in short, are great. But as I read the work — and I recall thinking this as I was drafting the thing — I realize that some of my favorite scenes don’t directly involve my main characters. In fact, the scene I read today is easily my favorite scene in the whole book. Hands down. And neither of my main characters is in it.

I’m not saying it’s the best scene in the book, but it’s certainly the one I enjoy most. So far. And in retrospect, considering what I remember writing toward the end of the novel, I don’t know that it gets any better than this at the moment. And this feels wrong.

So for my fellow authors and authors-in-training out there: Is it a problem if my favorite scene in the book takes place between characters who aren’t even on the marquee?

Anyway, here’s the passage:

…for the children of the gods, these tremendous abilities are as natural as breathing, as unconscious and automatic as reaching for a pen to jot down a phone number. Only when we discover that not only has the pen been removed, but it has been replaced with a snarling, voracious badger can we approximate the feeling that struck Calli in that moment.

I’m falling a little bit behind on my daily schedule for editing, but if I can keep finding gems like this along the way, maybe my Past Self can keep my Present Self motivated.

2 responses to “Another Dilemma, and a Writerly Question”

The other day, I wrote a scene I’ve been waiting to write for a while, as it gives one of the main characters something that propels her (& the story) forward completely…. The feeling of writing it was awesome!